Wildfire
by Buccaneers6
Summary: Sonic X Blaze. When Tails is forced to "borrow" a Sol Emerald in order to defeat a hyper-powered Eggman, a series of events leads to an adventure both Sonic the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat would never had dreamed of, as well as feelings for each other neither would have ever imagined. Mild profanity and violence.
1. Sol Survivor

"Sonic! You need to trust me!"

Sonic the Hedgehog, the Blue Blur and legendary hero of Mobius, _did_ trust Tails Prower. He trusted Tails with a number of things; he trusted him to pick the right places to go out to eat whenever they'd hang out, he trusted him to make sure he remembered all of his friend's birthday's (including Tails' own), and he trusted him to completely disappear for an unspecified amount of time in order to find some way to destroy possibly the most powerful doomsday weapon Dr. Ivo Robotnik, better known as Eggman, had ever created.

Unfortunately, Sonic had found himself in the latter situation.

Typically, the power of the Chaos Emeralds and, by extention, Sonic's Super Form, were more than enough to put down whatever the evil Doctor. Be it a Death Egg, a Phantom Ruby, or something else, Sonic had _always_ prevailed with the power of the Chaos Emeralds, but this new contraption was, to Sonic's utter disbelief, completely invulnerable to the invulnerable. It was another humanoid style suit, but not big and clunky like previous attempts; it was sleek, shining red and yellow frame, clad in a material Sonic had never seen before. It was only slightly bigger than Dr. Eggman's form, so it's maneuverability had drastically increased while causing it's hit box to suffer a dramatic _descrease._ It could take to the skies or operate on the ground at high speeds, and it was equipped with so many projectiles that Sonic wasn't entirely sure he wasn't using some sort of ritual to conjure up projectiles of all different kinds. The Blue Blur was almost surprised Eggman hadn't thought of this before.

Sonic wasn't worried for his health for NOW, of course, as he was totally impervious to damage; he couldn't get hurt, but he wasn't dishing out ANY punishment either. The new machine was taking hit after hit, and while Sonic was doing quite well in evading the arsenal of this Eggsuit, he had a feeling Eggman wasn't trying to knock him out of his super form; no, Eggman, who had fought alongside deadly enemies such as Metal Sonic and the Deadly Six, was fighting Sonic with an enemy Sonic couldn't fight at all.

Time. Sonic the Hedgehog was running out of time.

Soon, he would no longer be able to sustain his Super Form. He would fall back to Earth, quite literally, and this new mechanism would be the last thing he would ever see before Dr. Eggman finally removed the thorn from his side.

 _"You have to trust me!"_

Miles "Tails" Prower had been getting readings on the suit since the fight started, as he traditionally did. Miles was already crazy smart when the two of them were just young, but since they had hit their early 20's, it was apparent that Tails was an absolute genius. His inventions and machines became more complex, more unbelievable, and much more useful than they had even already been; even the machines he would always use to analyze Sonic's opponents had kicked up several notches since their youth. Simple readings on speed and reach became fleshed out massively; typically, with Tails' new machines, he could get readings on the entire inner mechanisms on every robot and gadget Eggman had built. This changed the game for the pair, and thus, Eggman changed with it; when Tails went to read this new invention, his computer had exploded.

Sonic had feared the worst, and then he heard those words. Tails was going to get _something_ that could beat this thing, and so Sonic had to trust him. He didn't know how long he'd take, but he knew it wouldn't be too long, and so he got up from the dirt he had so graciously been punched straight into and got back to work.

Sonic charged Eggman with a flying homing attack at the highest speed he could muster, but of course, it'd bounced right up. He was getting severly worried, but the most important thing was to buy time for Tails and to limit his physical exertion as to buy _himself_ a few more precious minutes. Ducking under a missile fired from the Eggsuit, Sonic began hovering backwards just a few feet away from the mid-boost Eggsuit.

"I gotta say, Egghead, you've truly outdone yourself," he remarked, a smirk on his face. "I'm not really one for the arts, but I gotta admit it's real poetic how you'd try to finally kill me at a place like Green Hill. Remember all those ass kickings?" he asked with a snark. Eggman, despite the hedgehog's gloating, seemed to keep his cool as the two flew across the emerald hills and plains.

"It must be working well if you're stalling," remarked the Doctor. He fired a slew of bullets from the front of the suit, only to have Sonic dodge the attack almost faster than the eye could see. "It took far too long, but I've finally got you, hedgehog. If you land now and transform out of your Super Form, you have my word I'll make your death quick. Even your best friend has abandoned you." Sonic closed his eyes and let off a short chuckle at that one.

"Tails isn't the little guy anymore. Once he comes back, you're done for. And I mean _real_ done. You've been proving to be MUCH more than a nuisance lately." Of course, the Doctor had always been an entirely legitimate threat to Mobius, but Sonic wasn't going to let him know that.

"I don't think so. You see, Sonic, I've been monitoring your Super Form across numerous encounters, and I've used the data gathered to give a live time status monitor right here on the screen in front of me. You have about seven minutes until your hourglass runs thin! I wouldn't count on your friend to save you!" Eggman flew up in altitude a bit before careening back downwards, which prompted Sonic to evade the attack by gliding to the right. He laughed wildly before resuming combat, but deep down, his nerves were beginning to rise.

 _Seven minutes! There's no way, he has to be lying,_ thought the Hedgehog as he evaded yet another strike. Attacking was useless, and would only exert him more; he had to be absolutely careful with exactly how much movement he could allow himself as to not waste any time, and maybe extend his invulnerability by a few precious seconds. That wasn't the only thing he had to look out for, of course; getting hit was out of the question, as any damage would impact the length that his Super Form could last. The attacks kept coming, but Sonic was smart about it; he couldn't stop moving, as the Eggsuit was far too fast to evade standing still, but he _could_ do his absolute best to make his movements as minimal and fluid as possible. This lasted for a few minutes, until one of Sonic's attempts to evade a rocket was, to his surprise, a failure. It hit him directly in the shoulder, and spun him in air; the Eggsuit took advantage, and rammed straight into his prone and flailing body. The hedgehog soared across the Green Hill Zone, tearing the grass apart as he kicked up pounds upon pounds of dirt. The cruel reality set in; his time was almost up, and his power was fading _rapidly._

"Tails…" muttered Sonic as he flew right up. The Eggsuit was coming at him at a blazing speed, and with absolutely all of his willpower, Sonic glided out of the way _just_ in time. It flew past him, managing to almost sweep him off his feet, and to Sonic's inevitable horror, it began to slow momentum and then turn right back around. Sonic clenched his fist; he couldn't move out of the way this time, he knew. This was it; every battle, every memory, every conflict led to this moment. The power was surging out of his body, and this next impact would almost certainly knock him well out of his Super Form. The Eggsuit was gaining momentum, and so Sonic closed his eyes and braced for the hard impact. He began thinking of every battle he'd had with the Doctor here, with those ridiculous wrecking ball contraptions—

"SONIC! DO NOT MOVE!"

 _Tails!_

Sonic's eyes shot open, but he didn't dare move an inch; whatever Tails had come up with, he knew in his heart it would turn the tides. The Eggsuit was careening towards him, and it was only picking up momentum. It had just about passed the halfway mark between him and where the robot had turned around to make it's charge when he saw a laser of some sort briefly fly towards him from the corner of his eye; he had an instinct to dodge it, but it was far too fast, and hit made contact with him right in his side. Expecting pain, he got the exact opposite; when that laser hit him, he felt a surge of power beyond anything he'd ever felt before. His muscles swelled with strength, and raw energy coursed through his entire body. Sonic felt like a shock had been delivered to a still beating heart, and with a burst he could only half control, he took off like shot directly at the charging metal suit.

"Oooh, this is gonna hurt," exclaimed Sonic, a smile painted wide on his face. The Eggsuit seemed to know that _something_ had happened, but it seemed that the Doctor was still confident; he activated the boosters on the suit, propelling him further even faster. It didn't take long before they collided, with Sonic throwing the hardest punch he could muster. As it turned out, what he could muster was a _lot._

There was an explosion of light. It was blinding only for a second, but it didn't last too long, because the end result was clear; the pieces of scrap that _were_ the suit came raining down like confetti, with only a chunk slightly larger than usual reduced to a heaping pile of rubble. Sonic merely stared at his hand, still hanging right in air where the punch had connected; his super form had run its course, turning him back to normal, but he hardly seemed to notice.

 _What the hell…I couldn't even dent this thing in my super form, and then I destroy it with one punch? What_ was _that?_

The world creeped back into view, and it took a second for Sonic to register that Tails was calling out to him.

"Wooooohoooo! Did you _see_ that! I mean, you were the one DOING it, but I still can't believe it! It worked! I mean, I'd been developing theorems regarding the chaos energy's reaction to—"

"Tails," Sonic said simply. "I've gone into hyper form, and I don't know if I've _ever_ felt that powerful before. What was that? That..beam," Sonic asked. He was, of course, happy it worked, but he was still baffled by his almost immediate increase in power. His concerns grew further when a sheepish grin grew across the fox's face.

"YYYYYYYYYYeeeaaahhhh, about that," Tails began. "So, you uh, remember that Quantum Mechanical Time Portal Defilterer I had finally figured out? The one that used excess amounts of chaos energy to open dimensional portals?"

"Yes…" began Sonic, clearly suspicious of where the story was headed. Somehow, Tails' face flooded with an even deeper red.

"Well, I went to the Sol Dimension and, uh, well…I stole this." From his back, which Sonic had not noticed he'd had a hand behind during the course of the conversation, he pulled out a gleaming orange emerald, chiseled perfectly rectangular. There was no doubt about it; it was a Sol Emerald, and bright and brilliant as Sonic had remembered them.

"I focused the energy through a concentration beam and fired away at your super form. I actually had no idea how the Emeralds would react to each other, but I began to develop theories after seeing you and Blaze use their powers in conjunction. As it turns out, the chaos and sol energy blend to create something crazy powerful; and that was only with one!" Tails had a beaming, thrilled smile on his face, but his jolly attitude dropped to the floor when he saw a tidal wave of anger surge through the now-blue hedgehog.

"Tails, you just took an artifact that Blaze has sworn her LIFE to protect, and now she won't know who took it! She'll search far and wide all around her world to find out what happened to it and she's gonna be so pissed when we take it back—" Sonic stopped mid-sentence as Tails' grin once again grew sheepish; he was hiding something, and once Sonic realized what it was, a look of pure horror spread across his face like wildfire.

"Oh gods, Tails…she didn't see you take it, did she?" The look on Tails' face was all he needed to know.

"No no no no no no no no no…" began Sonic, starting to pace back and forth. "Tails, Blaze will kick _all_ of our asses. We're gonna have MUCH bigger problems than damn Eggman! She could be here any—wait, where's the Doctor?" Sonic and Tails looked around Green Hill, which had been carved and torn apart by the ensuing battle, but there was no Doctor Eggman to be seen; he'd escaped during the aftermath of the explosion, it had seemed.

"Well, Egghead is gonna be the least of our problems," Sonic remarked, turning back to Tails. "You just stole an inanely powerful gem from another dimension, and Blaze is gonna want a real good explanation for it."

"You're damn right about that," came a voice from above.


	2. Old Friends and Older Memories

Blaze the Cat looked much, _much_ different.

Well, she _looked_ the same, really; her furstyle was as Sonic had always remembered it, a good portion of her hair tied back in an upward facing ponytail, and the jewel embedded into her forehead remained present, but maturity had certainly taken hold, as it had done with the Blue Blur. She had clearly fought Eggman Nega as tirelessly and furiously as Sonic had fought Eggman; she was the same old Blaze, but her face had hardened. Sonic had wondered if the same had happened to him.

Her outfit was MUCH different. Her shoes were no longer high heels; Sonic had teased her endlessly for it when they'd first met, _constantly_ ragging on her for their horrid combat ineffectiveness, and it appeared she'd taken the joking advice to heart. They now greatly resembled Sonic's shoes, but without the buckle, and the shade of red was a tad bit darker. Her purple top was now more of a trenchcoat style garmet, and looked much more rugged; it no longer had the frills on the cuffs her old one had, but the cuffs were now folded back in an ornate gold pattern. Likewise, her gold collar was now actually a collar instead on a lining, though as of right now it was folded upwards.

If he wasn't currently horrified of her presence under the current circumstances, he'd probably let off a chuckle; there was no doubt this was the same old Princess Blaze, but where protecting the Sol Emeralds and battling Eggman Nega was something she was just getting the hang of, it was now a cold profession. They'd been exposed to almost the exact same events, though with how the nature of their universes worked, this didn't surprise Sonic in the slightest.

"Blaze, I am so, so sorry!" Sonic started, now turning to his best friend. " _Tails_ here took one of your Emeralds from you, which of course is wrong and he shouldn't have done it. BUT…" Sonic sighed and began to chuckle weakly, looking up at Blaze with pleading eyes.

"He saved my life. Possibly the lives of this entire planet." He gestured towards the scrap metal remnants of one of Eggman's finest creations. Blaze turned to look, and once she saw the wreckage, let her mouth hang open just a bit.

"You were in your Super Form," she said, only just loud enough so the other two could hear her. She had a very distant look in her eyes.

"Yeah…how did you know?" Asked Tails. Blaze turned back to the pair, her slight look of surprise and shock still adorning her face.

And then she smiled.

"You two must be hungry," she remarked. "Would you mind crossing dimensions for some lunch?"

Blaze the Cat was a princess. Being of royalty, although Blaze didn't really ever talk about it all that much, Sonic knew she lived in what was only one described as a castle, and could infer from her status it was probably quite a large one. Sonic didn't know what it looked like, so he had prepared himself for the large, rustic turrets hanging over a massive drawbridge that had filled his mind whenever he'd pictured a castle.

As such, he was very surprised when Blaze took them to a quaint little shack in the forest, just around the corner from where the now-complete collection of Sol Emeralds were currently held.

It looked downtrodden from the outside, but the inside was filled with numerous luxuries Sonic could only imagine she was able to obtain due to her royal status. A pink velvet carpet lined the floor of the small area, with a rather large TV and an EXTREMELY fancy chair made from a material Sonic didn't even recognize adorning the left side of the room. The right side had what looked to be a very comfy bed, and two beautiful paintings on the wooden walls, one of a beach scene and the other of a darkened cityscape. Finally, a fireplace completed the setup at the back of the room, and Sonic figured she likely had no trouble sparking the wood when the nights got cold.

"Wow Blaze, nice digs! But I gotta admit I was thinking you'd be staying in a place a little more…spectacular," Sonic said. Tails nodded in agreement as he looked around the room, and blaze merely chuckled.

"This is my home away from home. I'll stay in the castle for a while and participate in all the royal events, but I get real nervous when I'm around lots of people, so I like to come here to settle down and train. It's nice."

"Awesome! What's for dinner?" asked Tails, rubbing his stomach from hunger. Blaze removed her cell phone from her coat pocket, resting her thumb over the dials.

"What would you like?"

The answer, to the surprise of absolutely no one, was chili dogs. Blaze had a simple wooden round table near the center of her cottage, and Blaze ordered the food from what Sonic deduced to be the royal kitchen back at her castle. It took around twenty or twenty-five minutes, but the food eventually came, and the three dug into what Sonic believed HAD to be one of the best chili dogs he'd ever had. The three caught up, and shared some adventures of their recent fights with their equally irritating nemeses, before Tails got up at one point, a strange electronic reader in his hand.

"Hey Blaze, would you mind if I took some readings on these Sol Emeralds? I'd like to take some notes and compare them to my readings on the Chaos Emeralds." Blaze took a drink of the red wine she'd been sipping on before nodding her head.

"You may, but I better not see an empty pedestal." That got a round of laughter from Sonic and Tails and then, eventually, Blaze; Sonic had always found the cat's deadpan humor could make him laugh at the most unexpected of times. Tails strolled out the door, his technological instrument beeping long before he closed it shut, and the pair watched him go out. Once the door was shut, Blaze took another sip of wine before speaking.

"I missed you guys," she started, leaning back in her chair. "I didn't know if I'd ever see you all again. Things…things have been crazy around here. Eggman Nega just keeps getting stronger and stronger and stronger. I could tell you were fighting the Doctor in your Super Form," Blaze remarked. Sonic nodded solemnly as he, too, leaned back in his chair.

"Yeah, it was this suit thing…I was hitting him with all I had, but nothing was working. I don't know if he did something to the metal or if it's a new material, but…I felt helpless. I _never_ feel helpless. From the dawn of time I've been able to stop Eggman's every machine, creation, or plan, but this…this was like nothing I've ever seen. If Tails didn't step in and save my ass with that Sol Emerald, he would have killed me. So, I guess you're going through the same thing?" Blaze gave a heavy sigh as she looked to the cabin roof.

"I haven't had to go Burning, not yet. But it gets harder and harder every time, Sonic. I've spent _years_ perfecting my craft." Blaze immediately brought a spire of flame from her open palm. It burned a bright white, and Sonic felt slightly uncomfortable from the heat, even though Blaze was far across the table. In a second, she closed her palm and the flame perished with a cackle.

"I've trained so hard. I've fought so hard. I feel better than I have in years. And yet…I'll be fighting Nega, pouring my heart and soul into everything I have, and I feel like it's not enough. Like it'll _never_ be enough. And the moment I have to go Burning…what the hell is happening to us?" Blaze directed that last question directly at Sonic, her mouth slightly agape and her eyes wider than the moon itself. To Blaze's surprise, Sonic didn't say anything at first; he merely chuckled.

"Blaze, do you remember when we first met? At the Dead Line?" Blaze's face immediately flooded red, and she looked down to the floor, drowning in a pool of embarrassment.

"Yes," she mumbled. "I attacked you." Sonic sighed with a smile and, contrary to the cat, looked up at the ceiling.

"You beat the hell out of me. I went through every move in my book; my spin dash, my homing attack, all the kicks and punches. You kept telling me you had to do it all yourself, that you had to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders, and I was telling you that wasn't the case. But as that fight dragged on, and I took more and more hits and you kept ignoring mine, I was beginning to think this girl on fire really _could_ carry the world on her shoulders. I still assert to this day that that fight with you was one of my toughest. I honestly didn't know what was gonna happen. In fact, that's why I was so freaked out when I found out Tails stole that Emerald." Blaze looked up at the blue hedgehog, and this time, it was her turn to smile; she rolled her eyes.

"I certainly wasn't ignoring them. In fact, you beat me, if I recall." Sonic raised his eyebrows and donned a smirk like a mask as he once again leaned back in his chair.

"Well of course I did. I'm Sonic the Hedgehog." That got a booming laughter out of both of them, lasting a few precious seconds as they both reminisced about their younger days. Once the laughter slowly died down, Sonic looked at Blaze with a piercing gaze as spoke his next words.

"My point, Blaze, is that I've seen very few people with a fire and determination as yours. Trust me, I know perfectly well how it feels to fight an enemy that only gets smarter and stronger, but I can't think of anyone else with as much grit and fury as you. If Eggman Nega thinks he even has a sliver of a chance of victory, he really doesn't know who he's messing with."

Blaze started smiling before Sonic was even done. She slowly got up from her chair and began to walk over to Sonic and, to his surprise, wrapped her arms around him. Sonic embraced the hug after a moment of shock, and in a few seconds, she detached, standing over him.

"Thank you so much, Sonic. It makes me sad a whole dimension separates me from such a good friend." Sonic waved his hand in dismissal, and was about to speak when Tails came bursting through the door. The door rocked back and forth from the force, and both jumped in a startle; Blaze, however, much more so, as she jumped a bit in the air from shock. This cause Sonic to look over towards her, and Blaze, now firmly on the ground once again, closed her eyes and sighed heavily.

"Dear GODS, Tails!" she exclaimed, rather forcefully. Tails grew a sheepish grin across his face, but the reaction quickly died and was replaced by one of worry.

"Guys, we have a major problem. So you remember the Quantum Mechanical Time Portal Defilterer? The one that I used to bring us here, and the one I used to get back?" The pair nodded careful as they anticipated the fox's next words.

"Well, I left it near the back of the cottage while I went to go grab my tool belt that I left by the Sol Emeralds. And now it's gone."


End file.
